Emotional management is vital in becoming a successful bettor – our tips

Everyone likes putting some money on football games – regardless of the amount. It could vary from €2 to €200 per bet. This article won’t instil certain knowledge which makes you a winning player, but it will help you in the long run. An general misconception is that “knowing football” should be enough to become a winning player. There is more to it. Emotional management is vital in becoming a successful bettor. Below, I will give some tips on the mental aspect of it.

 

Let start by the most important rule, which is fairly simple – but the most important one. Only bet with money you can comfortably lose. I’m honest enough to admit that ignored this rule when I first started with betting. The biggest mistake you can make in my opinion. There is a thin line between betting and gambling – which you should never cross. You will easily surpass that imaginary line when you are betting with money you can’t lose – cause you will start chasing your losses.

 

Of course, certain match events are completely based on luck (scoring from offside position, terrible longshot which is deflected to a goal, etc). Despite the situations which occur during a game: your bankroll management should be balanced – meaning that those (un)lucky bets won’t affect you in the long run. I’ve been actively betting on football for roughly ten years and the periods of luck and bad luck constantly switch each other off. Remaining calm and analytic is extremely important in those situations. Regardless of the outcome, always analyse your bet with a basic set of questions: Was I (un)lucky? Why did I win/lose this bet? And more importantly: everyone has a reason to bet on a certain event (injuries, form, managerial situation, etc). Despite the outcome, was your reasoning beforehand accurate? If yes: nice, keep it going! If no, what exactly happened and how does this compare to my reasoning?

 

I’ve mentioned it before: bank roll management. An certain way of maintaining your money in a responsible way. Many sites tend to explain this rather difficult, but I like to simplify it. Bank roll management prevents you from losing large sums of money by using a percentage system. The thumb of rule is to place bets with maximum of 5% per bet. Do you have 100% to your disposal? Than your maximum per bet should be €5 (10/10) Slow and steady could be boring, but ‘BRM’ is used worldwide by the majority of winning professional gamblers.

 

Thankfully, that includes me. In combination with my stake system, I slowly outgrew my own expectations from this system. I manage my bank roll in combination with an stake system. Meaning I value a certain bet and then decide in which category it falls. Before showing the example: 10/10 is a “sure” bet with 1/10 being a shot in the dark. I value bets on their odds. Again, this is my own staking system, so you could tweak it to your own liking.

 

1/10: +11.00 odds.

2/10: Odds between 10.99 and 9.50

3/10: Odds between 9.49 and 8.00

4/10: Odds between 7.99 and 6.50

5/10: Odds between 6.49 and 5.00

6/10: Odds between 4.99 and 3.50

*From the next stake, the gaps are significantly smaller

7/10: Odds between 3.50 and 3.00

8/10: Odds between 2.99 and 2.50

9/10: Odds between 2.49 and 2.00

10/10: Odds lower than 2.00

 

This part about bankroll management can also be found on our ‘betting strategies-page’, which you can find here.

 

The amount of bets you’ve placed is extremely important to notice a difference. I’m not saying that you should place money on literally everything, but give it time. Everyone can lose six in a row, but if you maintain composed and have a clear cut strategy? You will become an winning player. That’s why you must play with money you are comfortable losing, because you could lose some on the short-term.

 

Another tip: don’t chase your losses. I’ve seen this many times, betters are in a winning mood – but then the regression kicks in. A losing streak occurs and to chase their losses, they are overcompensating by place more bets. Or even worse: more money per bet.

 

I speak out experience: maintaining calm can be pretty hard to do after losing several bets in a row because of missed penalties, red card and so on. But know this: taking this seriously and taking emotion out of it could really benefit you in the long run. There isn’t a better feeling than to ‘upgrade your stakes’ because you’ve been steadily and slowly improving yourself and your bank roll.

 

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